Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts Flight 93 National Memorial 20240712

County, pennsylvania to visit the flight 93 National Memorial and take a tour of the Visitors Center which details the events of september 11th 2001. The memorial is the final resting place of 40 passengers and crew whose decisive actions prevented four al qaeda hijackers from crashing a United Airline 757 into the likely target, the u. S. Capitol building. This program is just under an hour. Hi. Im Adam Schaefer and im a park ranger at flight 93 National Memorial. Today well take a look inside the flight 93 Visitors Center which was dedicated in september 2015. We are currently standing out at the end of the flight path overlook. So were standing on the shadow of the flight path that flight 93 would have been on just before impact in the ground behind me and the reason were standing here is because this orientation for visitors is central to the design of the Visitors Center itself. The walls of the Visitors Center shield the visitors view of the landscape around us here and the enormity of the landscape and only frame the flight path as you approach the Visitor Center entrance. As youre coming off the parking lot you have to walk the flight path that this plane was on just before it crashed and the tall walls help to frame the last piece of sky that flight 93 passes through before impact here. So one of the first things that visitors notice as theyre walking the flight path from the parking lot to our Visitors Center is the timestamps that are embedded in the ground. This timestamp represents the first plane striking the north tower in new york city this morning at 8 46. The second timestamp as you look down the flight path just a little bit further represents the second plane hitting the south tower. We have some geese flying overhead here. The third time stamps going to represent American Airlines flight 77, and if you continue beyond the Visitors Center down to our Memorial Plaza where the names of the passengers and crew are listed, continuing to walk the flight path, just beyond the wooden gate that prevens the average visitors from going on to the crash site, the last possible piece of granite that has been laid here before you step over on to the crash site is the time stamp for United Airlines 93. In 2002 Congress Passes legislation and the president signs into law the flight 93 National Memorial act designating flight 93 National Memorial as a unit of the National Park system and the National Park service. From that point forward, a federal Advisory Commission was appointed to oversee a design, Management Plan for the site as well as the boundary for this memorial and so that was the beginning of the memorial that has taken shape around us. Were stilz not finished with the memorial. There are still a few missing components to the memorial landscape here that we are continuing to add on to, but the majority of the memorial camian line this past year with the dedication of the Visitors Center, the Learning Center and the walking trails that extend from this complex down to the crash site at the Memorial Plaza. The Memorial Plaza itself and the wall that bear the names of the passengers and crew is in white marble and so were looking down over top of that wall from the flight path. Its a continuation of the flight path just before the impact site and the crash site that we protect here. The National Park service protects over 42 acres of ground south of this black wall that you see laid out in front of us. That is the Northern Boundary to the crash site and debris field of flight 93, and so visitors when they leave the Visitors Center can drive or they can walk these trails down to the Memorial Plaza. Its a quarter mile stretch from our visitors shelter that you see from the left out to the flight path wall. Thats the shortest walk and that walk is there because iters seshl essentially protects the airfield and it allows the opportunity to get close to that landscape and to go and pay their respects or leave tributes to the passengers and crew of flight 93. So these tall walls are the Visitors Center, and its sometimes confusing for visitors arriving because it doesnt stand out as a building. They do appear as walls, and the design was based around answering the basic question of where did the plane crash since thats a common question that we receive on flight 93 and because the landscape here is reclaimed mine, its very open sky and very open, sweeping landscape here, its very easy for visitors to become disoriented to locating where flight 93 crashed and so the architect paul murdoch, paul murdoch architects out of los angeles designed the Visitors Center around the orientation of the flight path. And as you turn youre looking down the flight path and you can progress down the pathway here as you pass through the first opening, the entrance to the Visitors Center will be on your lefthand side, but what hes trying to draw the visitor out to is the flight path overlook and when you pass through the second wall, the landscape reopens to your field of vision where you can take in the entire landscape only after hes oriented you though to the flight path and the crash site. So were going to go inside the Visitors Center, but i wanted to just stop here and show you the texture of the walls that appear throughout the memorial on some of our structures. You are going to find this looks like wooden beams which are indicative of some of the barns and older buildings found in southwestern pennsylvania, but it also is a tiein to the Hemlock Grove of trees which was impacted when flight 93 crashed here on september 11th, and so some of the angles that you see here are sort of catch the angles of the eastern hemlock, the branches and the leaf structure and youre going to see that mimicked again in some of the cuts that you see in the sidewalks as we approach in, and you will see it throughout the glass on the thread of glass as well as in the ceiling tile here. So lets take a walk inside and well take a look at the exhibit space that just opened in september 2015. The first panel that you come to on the side here is entitled an ordinary day. Each wall that you come to within the Visitors Center has a black panel that gives you an overview of what each wall will cover, but it was very important to give visitors here especially if they didnt experience september 11th, everyone thinks back to the bright blue sky that there was and so it was important to place people in the context of Somerset County and the area around shanksville, pennsylvania, since this is more of an unfamiliar story, new york city is quite familiar to a number of people, and so as you get progress through the timeline of events you will see that it places you at the three attack sites from that day. So there is some foreshadowing that takes place here, but it places you in arlington, at the pentagon, and it places you in the believed attack site, flight 93 which is the United States Capitol Building and so the artifacts that you see behind the case are going to take you to those three places. Youll see theres a Business Card from one of the people that was working for a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald gist showing the routine business as usual aspect of that morning. A military cap from the pentagon as well as a wall plate hanging over an office that would have identified somebodys specific office. The piece that stands out to me the most that i share with people is a lot of people dont realize this is on the evening of september 11th, every year there is a congressional barbecue that the president hosts, and this year it was on september 11th for 2001, and so the members of congress were invited to the white house where they were going to enjoy a couple hundred pounds of tenderloin were being served that was on the menu and after the events began to unfold that morning and they realized they were evacuating washington, d. C. And the barbecues, of course, canceled. A lot of the food that was prepared for this barbecue was sent across to the rescue workers and to provide support at the pentagon. The invitation came to us from a staffer and his son planning to attend the barbecue that evening. So when you first come inside the Visitors Center youll notice that theres these tall black walls and the pattern is very similar to the walls on the exterior of the Visitors Center. When the flight 93 crashes here the thousands of gallons of jet fuel that incinerate on impact scorch 80 to 100 hemlock trees. This black against the wall here is symbolic of the charring of those trees and so hes tying you back to the story constantly as youre moving through the site. So if whether you recognize that or not theres usually questions that come up from visitors about, you know, either the coloration or the angles and it always allows us to tie it back to the story. This wall takes you right into thrusts you right into the events of september 11th and whats happening in new york city initially and so in the center of this exhibit space we have rolling footage and it cuts between different networks. It shows the global aspect of that morning. We have a breaking news story to tell you about. Apparently, a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center here in new york city. It happened just a few moments ago, apparently. We have very Little Information available at this time. Youre looking at obviously very disturbing live shot there and that is the World Trade Center and we have unconfirmed reports that a plane has crashed into one of the towers. There was an impact. Another one another plane just hit oh, my gosh another plane has just hit another building and flew rid into the middle of it. Explosion. Its right in the middle of the building. We just saw another one apparently go. Another plane just flew into the second [ speaking Foreign Language ] the other thing in the background, you have an image that shows the statue of liberty from new jersey. Should shot is actually taken a number of days after september 11th, but it shows you the smoke thats just still hovering over the city in lower manhattan. The artifacts that were selected for this case were done so very specifically to represent the three sites again and place people at those sites so you have for example, from new york city, you have some of the cutlery from windows on the world. Those are on loan from us from the National September 11th memorial and museum. You have pieces of limestone that were part of the collapsed pentagon and then whats unique here is you have miniature statue of freedom which as people will recognize the u. S. Capitol building is adorned with a 19foot tall version of freedom. Its a little over 19 feet. The architect of the capitol at the time was allen hantman and allen showed up a little before 9 00, i believe, and his story, of course, hes tuning into this news footage about whats happening in new york city, but hes also preparing that morning for a meeting to raise funds for a u. S. Capitol Visitors Center and thats sort of what his morning begins like and as things unfold they learn about the pentagon being attacked and then they are told that about ten minutes out theres this rogue plane thats inbound for wi washington, d. C. Allen hantman later learns that the immediate threat has passed because this plane has crashed in pennsylvania somewhere. And so he later comes here in 2012 and this specific statue of freedom, this desk model of freedom was on his desk that morning. He leaves the statue of freedom in one of the niches that are found at the Memorial Plaza where you will see where visitors have left other tribute items in the path and underneath that he left an architect of the capitol letterhead. He left an official letter and in that letter we have a copy of that and it reads this model of the statue of freedom that stands atop the dome of the United States Capitol Building is left with deep respect at the final resting place of the heroes of flight 93. Those that sacrificed their lives here on september 11, 2001, saved mine and those of many thousands of others at the u. S. Capitol building as well as the historic symbol of our democracy known around the world. We have come to shanksville, pennsylvania, to pay our respects and express our deep gratitude of those souls who will never be forgotten. So we cover the leadup or the buildup to september 11th with the time line that takes you through the establishment of al qaeda. Theres a little piece about bin laden, but we very specifically placed it on a rail so you have to get close to this wall in order to be able to read more about this. We did this specifically knowing that some people would not care to and would choose not to step up to the rail and know more about this, and we did this out of sensitivity, as well for the many family members that often visit the site. So after visitors come from this wall, they will turn around and theyre faced with a map of the United States and this is depicting the nearly 4500 aircraft that are in the air that morning and potential threats to the United States that morning and so what was important about this wall was showing just the chaos of trying to sort out correct, factual reports that were coming out from erroneous ones. The other important thing about this wall, though, is it gives you the diagram of flight 93. Flight 93 was a boeing 757 200 and if we get closer here you can see this is where the passengers and crew were ticketed on the morning of september 11th and so the diagram at the end shows you exactly where the passengers were seated, the terrorists, where they took position on the plane in first class that morning and one of the crew members would have been seated. The objects, the artifacts that we used to represent are we have a boarding plaass from hil marsen on flight 93 and toshida kuge woho was on the way to japan. One of the things visitors look at this diagram how underseated flight 93 was and one of the major changes that has occurred since september 11th, there are fewer flights. For example, United Airlines typically flew this flight three times a day from newark to San Francisco and so this plane would have been capable of carrying 182 passengers and of course, that morning theyre ticketed with 33 passengers and seven crew. Thats minus the four twoists th terrorists that were ticketed in the plane. A total of 44 people are going to take off from newark that morning and four of them are not planning, of course, to arrive in San Francisco, but the 33 passengers that are planning to make it to San Francisco that morning are expecting to arrive around a little after 11 00 local time. So well go around the corner to the next exhibit wall. So the next wall that you come to shows flight 93. Its airborne at this point after being delayed over 20 minutes. Flight 93 takes off at 8 42 and its going to begin its gradual climb out of newark airspace. Of course, if youve ever left from newark you realize that the airport is right across the skyline from the World Trade Center and this is four minutes before American Airlines flight 11 is going hit the north tower. Flight 93 gets airborne and climbs out of newark airspace and it will begin its trip for San Francisco and so this gray that you see on the map represents the routine flight across the state of pennsylvania and you can see are barely into ohio when the four terrorists that are on this plane are going to take control of flight 93. Theyre going to incapacitate the first officer and the captain. Captain dolan and first officer homer and theyre going to begin the turn flight 93 around for heading toward washington, d. C. At 9 28 is the approximate time of flight 93. The four will get up from their positions and theyre going to rush the cockpit. This is a gray area. There are some details about this that we just dont know exactly how they took over the plane. We do know from what was recovered at the site that they were carrying knives or box cutters of some type. They did threaten the passengers and crew that were on this plane with a bomb which is later learned to be a faux bomb and after they seize control of the cockpit there is a dip in altitude which gives us the indication when its taken over. If youre following this on the flight data recorder the plane is going to dip a couple hundred feet which is fairly significant. It would have been noticed by air Traffic Control and then the plane because of being on autopilot is going to come up to its assigned cruising altitude around 35,000 feet. The plane is going to manually be flown in a bank until it is so that there is a steep bank and its going to continue to climb up around 40,000 feet in altitude before it reaches its heading. The terrorists are going to use the heading of 120 which is going to take them back to washington, d. C. And you can see that draws a pretty Straight Line and the idea was from the tactics that they were using they were planning to lock on to when they were within range of reagan airport, they were going to lock on to the airport to help draw them closer to washington, d. C. So the diagram that you see now depicts the change from the time of the hijacking from when the passengers and the crew would have been originally seated. And so you can see by the yellow blocks indicated on the diagram, the passengers and crew where they were originally ticketed, theyve gotten up from their seats and they moved to the back of the aircraft and these represent seats where phone calls or airfone calls would have been placed from onboard the flight. We know there were 37 attempted phone calls. We dont know if that represents all of the phone calls because there were some cell phone calls made, but most of the calls during the portion of the flight after the time of the hijacking were placed from airfones. These are satellitebased phones that passengers would have used their credit cards to swipe and it leaves an excellent record for us now looking back to know that these calls were attempted. We know who they called or who they attempted to call if the calls werent connected and we were able to go back to either transcripts or in some cases we had the actual recording of some of the calls that were left on answering machines, and so these blocks represent the area of the aircraft where these kales are being placed from, and you can see from the time line that is just to the rightc are being placed from, and you can see from the time line that is just to the riga are being placed from, and you can see from the time line that is just to the rigl are being placed from, and you can see from the time line that is just to the rigl are being placed from, and you can see from the time line that is just to the rigs are being placed from, and you can see from the time line that is just to the right here that the passengers and crew from what we were able to gather from the phone calls a plan is being formulated to do something about their situation. They are learning very quickly in the early calls about the takeover that has occurred on other aircraft and that the World Trade Center as well as the pentagon have been struck by aircraft and so what theyre being told by the terrorists on their flight is that theyre going back to the airport to have demands met which was common strategy being applied in reverse, and what i mean by that is the faa developed what is known as common strategy for people in the Airline Industry in hijack situations, and it was really how you should respond and so some of the passover responses in years past is what a lot of the crew members would have been taking with them onboard that morning and how to respond to the hijacking initially. Because of these phone calls and the knowledge of when theyre doing with the planes after theyre being hijacked allows them to develop a completely new strategy while theyre in the air that morning and that strategy is that theyre going to attempt to retake control of this aircraft. We know that the passengers and crew took a vote from the back of the plane to do something, that they would not sit idly by and wait for something to happen that they themselves were going to take action on flight 93 and that was best illustrated then in the center of this exhibit space where youre actually viewing the information that has come back from the flight data recorder. So this is the first box thats recovered out of the ground here at the crash site of flight 93 two days after the crash, but it allows the visitor to basically see exactly how flight 93 was flying in the final six minutes when they implemented plan of fighting back and trying to regain control of flight 93. The terrorists are going to manipulate the controls to make it difficult for the passengers and crew to gain access to the cockpit, so thats provided by the National Transportation safety board. At the top youll see the cockpit voice recorder is the narrative is that it crossed the top so you can see in realtime what is unfolding near the cockpit voice recorder where there are four microphones that capture the voices in and around the cockpit space and that is paired up with how the plane is flying in these final moments and as we approach 10 03 you will see the plane will come on a 90degree angle and the left wing will rise up and as it does that its going to hold that for about a second and then its going to rock over on to its back side and the planes going to come down and crash at 10 03 11 here in the fields just behind the walls of the Visitors Center. So as we leave this wall and we turn to the next wall it was very important to try and give visitors especially if they have never flown before, theyve never really been on a 757 before, the idea or the sense of being compressed into the space of a singleaisled aircraft. So flight 93 and American Airlines flight 77 that hits the pentagon are both this model aircraft. The planes that crash at the World Trade Center are 767 so they are twinaisle aircraft, but it was important to give visitors the sense of being at the back of the aircraft where a lot of those phone calls took place and at this space we give visitors the opportunity to listen to three of the four recorded phone calls that were placed from onboard flight 93. Passenger lauren grant call phoned her husband jack at 9 39 a. M. About 11 minutes after the hijacking began leaving this message on their home answering machine. Honey, are you there . Jack, pick up, sweetie. Okay, well i just wanted to tell you i love you. Were having a little problem on the plane. Im totally fine. I just love you more than anything. Just know that, and you know, im im comfortable and im okay for now. Theres a little problem so ill i guess live you. Please tell my family i love them, too. Bye, honey. This is the answering machine in california that is capturing the message that shes just left for her husband jack who is at home that morning, but because of the time differential being three hours different from eastern seaboard, hes still in bed and so he doesnt awaken when she makes the the phone call and leaves the message for him. Passenger linda grundland phoned her sister elsa at 9 46 a. M. , 15 minutes into the hijacking, leaving this message on her home answering machine. Elsa, its lynn. I only have a minute. Im on united 93 and its been hijacked by terrorists saying they have a bomb. Apparently they have flown a couple of planes into the World Trade Center already and it looks like theyll take this one down, as well. I just wanted to say i love you and im going to miss you, and and please give my love to and i just wanted to tell you that. I dont know if ill make it or not. All my stuff is in the safe, the safe is in my closet in my bedroom. The combination is you push t for clear and online 1, 3 and maybe pound and then it should unlock. I love you, and i hope i can talk to you soon. Bye. Flight attendant cici lyles phoned her husband lauren at 9 47 a. M. About 19 minutes into the hijacking leaving this message on their answering machine. Hi, baby. Baby, you have to listen to me carefully. Im on a plane thats been hijacked and im on the plane. Im calling from the plane. I want to tell you i love you. Please tell my children that i love them very much and i am so sorry, babe. I dont know what to say, there are three guys that hijacked the plane and im trying to be calm. Were turning around and we heard planes that been flown into the World Trade Center. I hope to be able to see your face again, baby. I love you. Bye. So if we walk around from this wall, were going to go around to the next wall and its going to take you right here to shanksville, right outside of shanksville to where the plane impacts and to the edge of a reclaimed mine site and if you look to the top, the 911 phone caller that lives only about half a mile or less from where were standing, this is a little snippet of her call. Flight 93 will impact at 563 piles per hour, inverted, upside down and this case is really meant to give you the sense of fragmentation that takes place when flight 93 crashes, and so if we get a little bit closer you can take a look at some of the pieces that are recovered here. These are averagesized pieces that were found all across the site from the point of impact and southward. So you have a lot of wiring. 757s are made up of over 60 miles of wiring and very common thing to find, bolts and rivets. There are over 600,000 bolts or rivets holding this plane together when it impacts and this just shows you how finite this large, locomotive, weighted piece of equipment has become after it hits the ground here. You can see some of the bluish gas or smoke coming out of the crater from the jet fuel that incinerates on impact here. What i think a lot of people are oftentimes amazed by and the pieces are so fragmented and small here, but the majority of the aircraft has been absorbed into the ground here and so its not until later when they begin excavating the crater and looking for evidence here that theyre going to start to uncover more and more of flight 93. Thats represented maybe best visually on the camera by this bronze mockup. This sort of represents the edge of where mining had ceased and so this is really at the southern edge of a very large, open surface mine that had been active up until the mid90s and flight 93 is going to crash just before the edge of the treeline here. So its actually crashing in an area that would have been the soil would have been removed for a period of time until the coal had been removed and then this would have been back filled, much softer that morning than had it crashed in a hard field where the soil hadnt been removed that and then this area here where the trees the Hemlock Grove exists today, this would have been a natural stand of trees across here and so when the jet fuel incinerates that morning with the explosion from crashing into the ground the fireball is going to continue on their trajectory that the plane had been traveling and the jet fuel being topside now because the plane is inverted because there are three tanks and the fuel is going to continue on the trajectory of the plane and actually engulf this area with flame impingment. Thats best captured by the state police that morning. Around 11 30 that morning corporal with the state police with the Aviation Division will be airborne as they arrive here, and theyre going to capture some aerial footage of the site. Initially, they dont know what theyre looking at as far as where the plane impacts. They are going to land their helicopter. Theyre going to be briefed and then theyre going to return that afternoon and get some closer footage of the impact site and this footage really can clearly show you where this hole, 757 impacts the ground and the fuselage where it would have impacted. Of course, it was inverted so it would have been impacting the ground this way. It shows the scorching of the trees that are represented by the black walls of the Visitors Center. Theres so much debris that is embedded in these hemlock trees because its on the trajectory of the flight path that whenever the decision is made to cut down the burned trees that they send those trees through a wood chipper and the wood chip pile remains here on the site. It never left and it was part of the effort to ensure that there was proper care taken for the remains and that no remains would leave the site unless they were going for oifrgidentificat and returned to family members. You see some of the response out of the community that begins after flight 93 crashes here. This is rick king, the assistant fire chief out of shanksville and there is a quote that captures sort of the moment and what that must have been like for responders that were coming here that morning. Thelma klachys photo has been captured many times and this is the quote underneath sort of captures the moment for her when she takes this picture. This also represents the state response. You have governor tom ridge arriving. Hes the governor of pennsylvania at the time. Of course, he will eventually be fr promoted when president bush creates the department of Homeland Security as the secretary of the department of Homeland Security, and of course, the media immediately wants to know about this plane crash with whats happened in new york city and whats happened at the pentagon, theres an immediate thirst for knowledge and understanding about why this plane has crashed here, what investigators are looking for and sort of what the experience has been. The medias going to be pushed out of the away from the site within the first hour or so of being here and so theres a press conference thats established very near where the first 911 phone call is going to be received and this is a really great place to sort of transition, i think, to the next wall behind us. This this quote here is taken from the special agent in charge, but it shows the methodical nature that all of the investigators that came to flight 93 to this crash site were going to apply for the 13 days that they were going to be combing over the site and so we move to the next wall. What you see over here is this is a tactile that visitors can company, but its representational of the flight. The cockpit voice recorder that theyre searching for. This crime scene becomes so important in those early hours and days after september 11th because this flight does not hit its target and because of that investigators were able to comb through the debris field here and more easily get to any evidence thats going to shed light on who carried out the attacks, how they accomplished the attacks and whether or not, if there were other attacks that we needed to be aware of. And so theyre hoping to be able to sift through the debris here at the crash site of flight 93 in order to answer a lot of those questions and its here, one pittsburgh fbi agent says that they were driving the 9 11 investigation because of the evidence they were able to recover here at this site, and so this flight this cockpit voice recorder or popularly coined the black boxes. Of course, youre looking at this as orange. This is how theyre loaded into the tail section of the aircraft and theyre designed to be able to survive up to 2,000 degrees fahrenheit for a period of about 30 minutes and withstand a large amount of g force from an air to ground crash and so they were very hopeful that they would find these boxes and the reason we know so much about what happened on flight 93 is because these boxes are excavated out of the ground. So what you come to in the center here is a Television Monitor that takes you through the methodical nature of combing through the ground. Sort of the linear approach that they take to picking up aircraft debris that might be obstructing the view of any evidence that might be laying underneath it or on the ground and they began sifting through the debris and categorizing plane parts from evidence and personal effects that are recovered here and the fabulous thing about this exhibit and some of the other exhibits that we have here in the Visitors Center as captured by oral history. So you can pick up the ones and i know youre capturing some of the text here, but you can pick up these ones and you can listen to the voices of the investigators themselves describe to you the importance of this site. You can hear what it was how important it was the moment that they discovered the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. You dont have to hear from a ranger why its important. You can hear from the people themselves tell you that were here combing through the site. What youre looking at right now is the Suntrust Bank card that was recovered here that sheds the light on the financial trail of al qaeda, and so it is a really important piece of evidence thats recovered here on the ground, but you can see theyre sifting through the dirt excavated out of the crater here and very carefully sort of raking through the ground, basically using theyre on their hands and knees going through a lot of the debris thats here and a big part of that is also the recovery of human remains. The ability to be able to identify everybody that boarded this aircraft, and so the end of the exhibit space youre seeing Somerset County coroner wally miller and his role here, this is his scene, but hes going to have federally dispatched a demort team, it stands for disaster, mortuary Operational Response team, but theyre going to assist him with the recovery of the human remains here. What a lot of visitors ask us about the crash site here is about the remains, is about this being a final resting place because we sort of use that term generally, but from the moment of impact about 92 of the remains, its estimated, were unrecoverable and theyre scattered across the site and never recovered. Its believed that 8 of the remains of the people onboard flight 93 were recovered and a percentage of that 8 were actually identifiable, that could be returned to family members and the remaining unidentified remains were brought back and reentered in flight 93. This is both traditional and nontraditional Burial Ground and we treat the crash site as such and protecting 32 acres south of the Memorial Plaza. Youre looking at some of the pieces that were recovered from flight 93 itself and you see a seatbelt latch and some of the silver we silverware that would have possibly been used for first class and a portion of a manual. If you come up from that, these are some of the larger pieces that were recovered of flight 93. More interestingly, the piece to the front is the nose number for flight 93. So this is a number that would have been used by the specific airlines. There is a nose number and a tail number and it was specific to a nose line number itself and the tail number was used by faa to identify planes like your license plate that you have on your car. So the top piece that youre looking at comes from the vertical tail stabilizer and thats the only place on flight 93 other than the American Flag itself that would have during the side of the plane where you have red, white and blue. Over here we have some examples of some of the personal effects that were recovered from the site. Notably richard guidagno. He worked for the official Wild Life Service and that was his badge recovered here at flight 93. You have todd beamers employee identification badge that he carried with him on the plane and colleen frazier, her drivers license recovered here at the crash site. The drivers license is a facsimile. This wall is all about the passengers and crew of flight 93. The idea here is its much like the portraits hanging on your wall at home. If you have family photos hanging, there is a central photo where each of the 40 passengers and crew are identified and then theres an unmarked photo, secondary photo that sort of captures them with other people in their lives, other family members and friends or captures a snapshot, a moment in time from their life that was really special to their family or friends. This piece here in the center is the cap of the purser who would have been the Flight Attendant caring for first class. This hat was a signature piece, though, worn by deborah welsh. And debbie would regularly wear this sailorstyle cap when she went to work and this is one of the photos we have of her wearing that hat, and if you pan just above that photo youll see debbie with her dalmatian. She absolutely loved. If you come down to the screen here, we can go and we can look at debbie welsh and there is a biothat will cover a little bit about her life and who she was. You can come over and look through additional photos. We see her with her dalmatian, but you can scroll through. She loved to fly, and she was known for sometimes taking some of the leftover Airline Meals home with her. She lived in new york city. And would take those home and distribute those to some of the homeless or people that were in need. She would see that they were distributed and used. Im sure that wasnt didnt go with airline policy. This is her with her husband beginning of her career. So over here you have some items that belonged to first officer leroy homer. You have his patch from his military service with the United States air force. She was a graduate of the United States air force academy. His wings. And his luggage tag from United Airlines. You also have mary ann britten was traveling with martinez. Maryann britton were traveling for the u. S. Census bureau. Mary ann britton was a 20 year employee of the census bureau. This is the bronze medal she received for exceptional service. I think the other neat piece that we have here, this is the congressional gold medal that was struck for flight 93. And in 2014, that was presented here on september 11th to the site for the actions of the passengers and crew of flight 93. And so, you have both sides represented there. And its important to say that each site, each of the september 11th sites, new york city and the pentagon also have congressional gold medals that represent their sites specifically. But this is the one that represents flight 93. So if we turn then around to the wall behind me, this captured how visitors, how people have just been drawn to this site from hours within hours after the time of the crash over the last 15 years. At the top you have a quote that was written on a tribute piece that was left here at the flight 93 crash site at one of the early temporary memorials. And if we come over here to the exhibit case, captains words you saw at the top of the exhibit case are on this photo of a quilt that had been stitched together by susie bird in california and captain ruda of the Los Angeles City Fire Department wrote these words. And at an early planning meeting where they were trying to decide what would happen with this memorial, this quote was sort of identified as really a preamble to a Larger Mission statement for what the memorial would become here. When we came in from outside of the Visitors Center and youre walking the flight path, as we did at the beginning, you noticed a common field one day. Thats where it comes from. A tribute item that was left here in these fields as a tribute to the passengers and crew of flight 93. In 2003. Some of the groupings of tribute items that had been left at the temporary memorial or at the permanent memorial here, you have things that represent the rescue workers that responded at all of the sites. Patches are a common form of item that are left here representing not just rescue workers but also military. We have a strong connection here with the people visiting that leave military items. And then down at the end, we also have items that were left here by the people who responded here. This is the shanksville Fire Department, one a coat that would have been left. The original coat is in storage, so this is a facsimile. The original coat you can see pictured on the wall hanging covered in ice at the back of the exhibit case. The other piece that we have in the foreground here is assistant fire chief rick kings fire helmet and some of the other shields that would have been at the front of responding Fire Departments that responded to the crash here at flight 93. A piece in the center here, it is a montage of various people and times throughout the history of the site since the crash. And so, from the very moments where family members were coming here for the first time and leaving flowers and things themselves to visitors beginning to come here for the first time as well and pay tribute to the actions of the passengers and crew. You have shifting periods from the early days to the dedication of the permanent memorial in 2011 at the Memorial Plaza and the wall that bears their names, which you see in the video here. Building up to the dedication of the Visitors Center that were standing in in 2015. So, at the conclusion of the exhibit space, this is the final wall. And it captures the nearly 3,000 lives that were lost that day as a result of these attacks, including flight 93. So, they are segmented out by the different locations, as youre finding the names. And in the center, theres three screens that capture the three memorial sites. Because this is an unfolding story, we did not talk about post september 11th and the world that is continuously changing and, of course, there are events tied to International Terrorism that have unfolded since that time. And so, the Learning Center, which we passed on our way into the site, is a place where were continuously going to be looking to expand on this story since september 11th and talk about its a place where we can talk about the legacy of flight 93 as well as the continuing story from these events. And so, we felt it was important to stop here and pay tribute to all those that lost their lives as well as show the three memorial sites where you can go and learn more about the individual stories at those locations. Flight 93 National Memorial represents a lot about what makes america a fantastic country, in that on september 11th, 2001, the people that were on board flight 93 were everyday ordinary people, citizens of the globe, even. And it shows that you can make a difference no matter how big or how small and no matter where youre at. And in a very short period of time, too. It shows human nature at its best and at its worst moments together. It shows that everyday people can come together for the betterment of humanity. What you see illustrated here is people not sitting by and watching but actively becoming involved citizens in an event that unfolded to them. In a sense, the passengers and crew of flight 93 were living in a post september 11th world long before any of us knew what that was. They were living it in the skies overhead. And its important for us to take the lessons of the people on board this plane and what they were able to do in such a short period of time. I often tell students that are coming here, think about how you utilize 30 to 35 minutes out of your everyday life and what you can do with that time. Maybe you can repurpose that time, even if its something as simple as, you know, helping somebody carry their groceries in from the car or picking up garbage. Its often a challenge to the visitors that come here, a, its a chance for self examination. I think a lot of visitors ask themselves, would they be able to do this themselves if they were put in the position . And i think its a question that nobody can answer unless if theyre faced with the same set of situation. But its one that people often ask themselves when theyre here. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan 3, go inside a Different College classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights and u. S. President s to 9 11. Thanks for your patience and for logging into class. With most College Campuses closed due to the impact of the coronavirus, watch professors transfer teaching to a virtual setting to engage with their students. Gorbachev did most of the work to change the soviet union, but reagan met him halfway. Reagan encouraged him. Reagan supported him. Freedom of the press, which well get to later, i should just mention, madison originally called freedom of the use of the press and it is instead freedom to print things and publish things. It is not a freedom of what we now refer to institutionally as the press. Lectures in history on American History tv on cspan3 every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Lectures in history is also available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. On lectures in history, university of michigan professor jonathan marwill teaches a class on how the victims of september 11th terrorist attacks are remembered. It revolves around a Associated Press photograph of a 9 11 victim falls from the north tower of the World Trade Center. Okay. Lets begin. So far, what we have been focusing on, first of all, was the film and the images in the naudet film done by the two brothers, french b